The blast of cool air as I walk in makes me shiver. I don’t mind working in the heat. I’ve been doing it all my life, so I’m used it, but it means air conditioning on a warm fall day can feel a little chilly on my skin.
Searching the signs around the bookstore, I try to decide where to begin. I know what I want, but hell if I know where to find it. In the animal section? Business? Who the hell knows? I finally give up and make my way around tables full of sale items to the information desk.
“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asks me in a flat tone, never taking her eyes off the monitor she’s staring at.
“Yeah. I’m looking for the new Temple Grandin book. I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”
She continues observing the screen, clearly not interested in this conversation. “What’s the author’s name?”
I crinkle my brow. You’d think someone working at a bookstore would have heard the name before. “Uh, Temple Grandin?”
“What’s the last name?”
“Grandin?” I’m starting to question whether or not I’m actually saying words out loud. Am I speaking too quietly?
A few clicks of the keys later and she finally gets a little animation to her face. “Aha. Here it is. Author’s name is Temple Grandin. It just came out a couple months ago. Follow me.”
I just shake my head at how odd this entire exchange has been and follow her to the “self-help” section. Of course, it’s the one place I didn’t look.
It takes her only a few seconds to locate the book and grab it off the shelf. “Here ya go.” Then she turns and walks away.
This is why I don’t like big chain stores. I can’t seem to run into people who actually like their jobs. Mom and Pop shops are more my style, but this is all we have in the way of bookstores around here. Besides, it’s always possible I attract the wrong kind of customer service personnel.
Speaking of attracting people, after flipping through the book quickly, I turn around only to see the woman who has been starring in all my latest fantasies across the aisle. Greer is dressed in blue jeans and a plain white shirt, hair pulled up on top of her head and sunglasses holding the rest of her hair off her face. She’s got her nose in a book, and her effortless beauty takes my breath away.
Before I can stop myself, I’m walking her direction, my focus squarely on her.
“Scoping out the competition?” I jest as I approach. I know the second she recognizes me because her face lights up.
“Ace. What are you doing here? I’d expect you to be on the farm right now.”
Holding up the book to show her I respond with, “Just grabbing some research material.”
Her eyebrows rise, making her forehead wrinkle slightly. “Temple Grandin, huh? I’m impressed.”
I shrug nonchalantly. “I like to hear what she has to say. She has good insight into how best to work with our Bessies.”
“She knows a lot about how to work with the kids too.”
I chuckle. “That she does. I always take away a few nuggets of wisdom when I read her books. What about you? I see you’re in the”—I glance up at the sign over the shelves—“romance section. I guess I was right about why you’re here.”
Reshelving the book she was holding, she smiles at me. Little lines around her eyes form. I like the way they look on her. They don’t age her, even though most women would probably call them crow’s feet. On Greer, though, they show how much she’s lived.
“Just market research, I suppose. I like coming here and seeing my clients’ books on the shelves and what other things are being picked up by publishers. Keeps in me the know with my clients. Plus, it gives me an excuse to have someone else make me a cup of coffee,” she says, referring to the small coffee shop on the other side of the DIY books.
I don’t know if she dropped a hint about wanting to share a table with me, but I jump on that idea quicker than a bull jumps on a heifer in heat.
“Well, I was just about to pick up a cup. Would you like to join me?”
This time, a grin crosses her face slowly. It almost feels seductive, even though I don’t think that is her intention.
Down boy, I chastise myself internally. It’s coffee. Not a roll in the hay. Although that would be fun, too…
“I’d love to.”
Snapping out of my wayward thoughts, I reach my hand out and gesture. “Lead the way.”
The line is short, so we get our drinks quickly and snag a table overlooking the rest of the store. I like that the little café is up a few steps. It makes it feel like you have a view, even though we’re inside. But I guess that’s the effect they’re going for.
“How long have you been running the farm?” she asks, her lips pursing as she blows away the steam curling up from the hot liquid.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I have to practically force myself to stop thinking of what those lips must feel like. Either it has been way too long since I’ve been with a woman, or she and I have a very strong connection. Considering we haven’t set a day for our date yet, I don’t know which it is.
Concentrating on the conversation at hand, I rub the scruff on my chin. “Gosh, I guess it’s pushing twenty years now.”
The muscles in her smooth neck move when she swallows, another physical attribute I shouldn’t be noticing. “That’s a long time. It’s a family-owned business, right?”
I bob my head back and forth as I think about how to respond. “It used to be, but since it’s just me now, I’m not sure we can call it family-owned anymore.”
“Oh? Where’s everyone else?”
Oh boy. She opened a very depressing can of worms. None of it’s a secret; it’s just a lot at once. Still, even if I didn’t like her in a romantic sort of way, her child spends a whole lot of time on my land, and the story is going to come out eventually anyway.
“About six months before I was supposed to graduate from college, my dad dropped dead in one of the fields.”
She throws her hands over her mouth. “Ohmygod, that’s terrible!”
“Yeah. Massive heart attack. Doctor said he never knew it happened. One second he was working in the field and the next second he was singing with the angels.”
“At least it was quick.”
“Yep. And honestly, it wasn’t that surprising. Don’t get me wrong, we were all crushed. But the doctor had been telling him for years he had high cholesterol. Stubborn as he was, he refused to change his diet. And my mother would never force him to. She always said life was about quality, not quantity, and she’d rather we live full, happy lives than live longer in misery.”
“Hmm.” Greer responds. “I never thought about it that way. There’s some wisdom in that.”
“I suppose. I feel like she missed out on a middle ground, though. Especially since her own enjoyment of life ended up killing her about five years after my daddy.”
She leans in, eyes wide in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. The woman loved her cigarettes. Refused to quit, until lung cancer took her. I’m glad I came back after my daddy passed to run things again. It meant I could take care of her and my brother, John.”
“I didn’t know you have a brother.” Her smile is so genuine, I feel bad about continuing on with the unfortunate truth.
“Had.”
Her face immediately drops. “Oh my gosh. I don’t know if I can take any more past tense in your life.”
I chuckle at her reaction. When you tell the story, it all seems to happen back to back. Reality is, there were years between their deaths. It was a struggle, sure. But I had time between. For that, I’m grateful.
“John had Down Syndrome and, while he was really smart, he was also really babyfied in some ways. He was so close to my mother. When she died, and I became his guardian, we did well together, but it wasn’t the same for him. He cried, wanting his mommy every night, saying I didn’t sing the same way she did. Finally, his heart gave out. He had a congenital heart defect, but really, I think he died of a broken heart.”
“Literally and figuratively,” Greer interjects, mirroring what I’ve always thought. She pats my arm. “I’m sorry Ace, that’s… wow.”
“It’s really okay, Greer. It’s been over a decade. I’ve gotten used to being on my own. The nice thing is at first, we put together the co-op to give my brother and kids like him a place to learn skills. Now I keep it going in his honor. I like to think all three of them are looking down watching, and are really proud of us and what we’ve accomplished.”
“Well if they aren’t, I certainly am,” she says.
Peering up at her again, I smile. She’s beautiful, inside and out. But now I feel like I’m being a Debbie Downer.
“Anyway, enough of the depressing talk,” I announce, slapping my hand on the table. “How is Oli adjusting to the new school. And Julie, that’s your daughter, right?” She nods. “How is she settling in? I know transition can be rough.”
Her face practically glows as she tells me all about how Oli is handling all the changes much better than originally anticipated. It makes me feel good, knowing I’m a part of that. Julie, on the other hand, is still struggling with fitting in. I suppose that’s not unusual. The teenage years seem to be the worst for everyone.
Before I know it, we’ve run out of coffee and out of time.
“I’m sorry,” she says kindly, “but I have to run if I’m going to make it home for Oli’s bus.”
Looking at my watch, I realize we’ve been sitting here for over an hour. “Oh wow. I didn’t realize how late it was. Yes, definitely.”
As she begins to stand, she stops and turns to me. “Thank you for the coffee, Ace. I really enjoyed visiting with you.”
And just like that, my focus is back on those lips.
“Good. Are we still on for a real date?” I raise one eyebrow in question and get a flirty smirk in response. I take that as a good sign.
“Absolutely. You have my number. Text me and we’ll coordinate our schedules.” I stand when she does, because I’m a gentleman like that, and watch as she walks away after patting my arm.
My hand immediately covers where she touched, like somehow, it’ll make the electric feeling I had when she touched me stick around longer.
When I finally pull myself together, I toss my coffee cup in the trash on the way out, leaving the book I spent so much time tracking down sitting on the table.